Am I nuts right now....

....for wanting to trade my lovely Roadster head for a mark v? I don't have the trade set up or anything. But as much as I absolutely ADORE my roadster, I keep wondering if the mark will get me closer to the tone in my head. Or maybe you fine people can guide me towards the light.

I'm a bit of a petrucci fanboy (admittedly) so obviously I'm into his tones especially when I was at his clinic. Sounded great. But when I tried one it felt almost too sterile. Granted I didn't crack it open like I should've. I'm also hearing a mix of Mick mars (dr feelgood album), death magnetic album tones and mark tremonti from alter bridge. So a mix of recto and mark is pretty much the way to go but cash is an issue. I love nice tight stuff like off death magnetic but need the big low end like tremonti and mars.

Any suggestions?

(I also get the feeling I'm just in a 'grass is greener' stage at the moment, idealizing another amp. And the fact that the mark only has one usable high gain channel to me means additional equipment for leads whereas the roadster has my separate rhythm and lead channels.)

It's probably a "grass is greener" moment, as you said. I don't think you can really say either one of those amps is better than the other; they're just different tonal flavors. Something you should think about if you play in a band is where you want to sit in the mix. The Mark V is voiced higher than your Roadster, and if you play in a band, the sound of the entire band will be affected. This may or may not be a good thing, depending on what you're going for. If you mainly play by yourself, just do whatever makes you happy.

The Marks are just a different breed altogether that's what makes-em cool in their own rite 8) . It's a different tone stack and gain structure. The recto will take you to other wonderful places but they are on different sides of the hood but no less cool. If your going to be playing Boogie you need to pick up or play both the Mark and a Recto series and sort it out. Both Rock what else would you expect?
The latest and greatest amps are not the only word in this subject matter there plenty of great examples from the last 30 years that will rock your world.